Nominetâs auction of short domain names resulted in the .UK registry receiving an average of £39,000 per domain sold for the remaining single letter domains. The domains were bought by a mix of domainers and brand owners.
Following the closure of the Landrush application period on 15 June, there were 1327 domains with more than one applicant that were to go to auction. During the Landrush phase for the remaining 2640 .UK domains, Nominet received 10,663 paid applications. During the earlier Sunrise period, 178 domains were allocated to rights holders, that is brand names.
According to news reports Facebook bought fb.co.uk; Mercedez Benz mb.co.uk and clothing retailer H&M the hm.co.uk domain name. Surprisingly to some, g.co.uk did not go to Google but to a domain name investment firm, or domainer while one domainer is reported to have bought 170 domains for a total of £500,000.
To register your .UK domain name, check out Europe Registry here.